The Two-Way

1:45 pm

Mon March 5, 2012

In Egypt These Days, Lying About A Nose Job Can Bring A Politician Down

It was more than 30 years before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lost his grip on power, though many of his people had long suffered under his oppressive regime.

It took less than a week for "a newly minted ultra-conservative Islamist member" of the post-Mubarak parliament in Egypt to be forced to resign because he lied about getting a nose job.

Anwar El-Balkimy had told reporters he was attacked and beaten — forcing a hospital stay last week. Instead, he'd had cosmetic plastic surgery on his nose. And that's "considered forbidden by the Al-Nour Salafists who follow a strict brand of Islam," as ABC News also reports.

"Nader Bakar, a spokesman for the Nour Party, said that in expelling Mr. Balkimy the party was establishing the principle of accountability, requiring public officials whose wrongdoing interferes with their duties to apologize and bear the responsibility — something he said was common around the world but still new in Egypt.

"Mr. Balkimy apologized but it was not clear whether he had yet acknowledged making the story up."